Worker seeks $15M, claiming shock at Home Depot

MANSFIELD – A man formerly assigned to the Ontario Home Depot store to deliver home building supplies around the region has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $15 million, saying he suffered permanent injuries from being shocked while loading goods near an improperly repaired extension cord.

Dan Gillespie, 627 Wesley Ave., Mansfield, filed the lawsuit Sept. 19 against Home Depot, 2000 August Drive; its statutory agent; Home Depot employee Emory Lynch of Raymond Avenue, Shelby; the “John Doe” employee who made repairs to the cord; and his former employer, CEVA Logistics U.S. Inc., a Cleveland-based company hired by Home Depot as independent contractor to load vehicles with building supplies for delivery.

The personal injury lawsuit has been assigned to Judge Brent Robinson. A hearing is scheduled for Dec. 16.

The lawsuit says Gillespie, who drove a tractor-trailer to deliver Home Depot products in greater Mansfield, Ashland and Columbus, was at work at the store in Ontario on Jan. 8, 2010, and was given an extension cord for use on his forklift when a short circuit occurred, giving him an electric shock. The court filing contends the extension cord had been repaired in such a way as to allow rain and snow to cause a short circuit.

Gillespie allegedly suffered damage to his heart, permanent impairment of his sight, medical expenses, permanent loss of employability, lost wages and psychological injuries.

Turowski said someone at Home Depot changed the polarity of the male and female ends of the plug when trying to repair the cord. “That cord had been altered — a silly $5 or $6 extension cord was repaired, and repaired improperly, rather than someone at a store where home construction supplies are sold finding a new one.”

The lawsuit claims that Lynch, who provided Gillespie with the extension cord, should have known it was dangerous.

Gillespie is seeking $5 million in compensatory economic damages, $5 million in compensatory non-economic damages, punitive damages of $5 million and $100,000 in actual expenses (based on allegations that Home Depot hid, altered or destroyed evidence) plus another $1 million in punitive damages.

CEVA Logistics was named as a defendant so that it could recover payments for medical expenses and workers compensation claims, according to a court filing.

The case was initially filed in January 2012, to be heard by Judge James Henson. But was voluntarily dismissed by agreement of all parties in late 2013, with Gillespie reserving the right to refile the case. Turowski said the case was “very complicated” and Gillespie was not ready to go to trial at the time the first lawsuit was dismissed.

Home Depot’s public relations staff provided no comment Thursday, and the attorney in the 2012 lawsuit, G. Michael Curtin, could not immediately be reached.

In a request to the judge to dismiss the 2012 case, Home Depot argued that numerous repairs were made in weeks prior to the incident to the electrical system on his forklift. Attorneys for the store argued Gillespie had received a less serious shock prior to Jan. 8, when he was using a completely different extension cord on his forklift, which was “the only commonality” between the two incidents.

Home Depot said at the time of the accident, Gillespie was wearing leather winter gloves that had become wet because he had just wiped snow and water off parts of his tractor-trailer.

The store argued at the time that the plaintiff had never identified an expert on electrical systems or whether either the previous electrical repairs to the forklift or Gillespie’s wet gloves played a role.

It argued that Gillespie said in depositions the new extension cord he was given had looked fine to him, and that the plaintiffs never demonstrated that any negligence on the defendants’ part caused the accident.

Turowksi said whether Gillespie’s gloves were wet or not, the extension cord was improperly repaired and inherently dangerous.

Gillespie, who was taken to the hospital by a co-worker, did not at first realize the extent of his injuries but suffered progressive nerve damage throughout his body, the attorney said. Damage to his eyesight and heart have made it impossible to maintain his commercial driver’s license. “He is unemployed because he is unemployable,” Turowski said.

“We’re stuck with a fellow we will have to support probably for the rest of his life,” the attorney said. “We just hope to get him enough of a recovery that he can go back to the lifestyle he was used to before the incident.”